On Missouri's A-list

There's a future pediatrician and a rock 'n' roll playing mathematician. There's an aerospace engineer hopeful and an international diplomat in the making.

Their aspirations are as different as their backgrounds and interests, but Ashley Bartels, David Kiblinger, Sonia Tikoo and Bonan Wang do have something in common: Their academic accomplishments place them among the top 100 seniors in Missouri this year.

Out of the state's 57,000 high school graduates this year, the Missouri Association of Secondary School Principals recently recognized those local students among the top 0.002 percent of seniors for academics and community involvement at a banquet in Columbia, Mo.

"It's the smartest kids you'll ever meet in Missouri gathered together," said 17-year-old Tikoo, daughter of Dr. Mohan and Jaikishuri Tikoo of Cape Girardeau. "It's nice to know there are other students out there who have worked as hard as we have."

Tikoo is one of two seniors from Central High School who received this year's award. Seventeen-year-old Wang, daughter Dr. Shaojun Wang and Yifeng Ren, is also a Central student. Bartels attends Jackson High School and Kiblinger is a senior at Notre Dame Regional High School.

If the students have anything else in common, it's probably the amount of effort they've put forth in their high school careers. Each has been involved in a long list of academic and extra-curricular activities, volunteer programs, tutoring, athletics and music.

They've managed to maintain straight A's while taking high school- and college-level courses. They're all either valedictorian or salutatorian of their senior class. But the achievements haven't come without a price, like giving up free time to study or practicing musical instruments for hours on end.

"Valedictorian, that's my definition of success right now," said 18-year-old Bartels. "This wasn't given to me. I made sacrifices to get it. But people always say that the high school years are the best years of your life. If that's true, I won't be disappointed."

Schools nominate students for the Missouri Association of Secondary School Principals award based on a 10-point formula that includes college entrance exam scores, grade point average, community involvement and courses taken. Those who fall in the top 100 were recently honored at the Columbia, Mo., banquet and received a plaque, dictionary and commemorative alarm clock.

"It's a very distinctive honor and it speaks well for our school. They're the ones with intelligence, but the school system gave them opportunity to foster that intelligence," said Dr. Mike Cowan, Central High School principal.

Cowan said with 524 school districts in Missouri, it isn't a given that a high school will have a nominee selected for the award.

Different directions

The four students are headed in different directions after graduation. Kiblinger, the 18-year-old son of Mark and Debbie Kiblinger of Cape Girardeau, will attend Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo.

Throughout high school, he's been involved in soccer, theater construction and enjoys playing Led Zeppelin classics on his guitar. Kiblinger plans to major in physics and math, with a possible minor in philosophy.

"I just want to see where it will take me," he said. "Math has always been my favorite subject. I like the problem-solving aspect of it."

Tikoo has been accepted at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., where she hopes to major in applied math or aerospace engineering.

"My parents gave me a foundation morally and taught me how to prepare for life," Tikoo said. "They just told me the best you can do is quite a lot, so go out and do it."

Tikoo and Wang are in a friendly race for valedictorian of their graduating class. The girls, who jokingly describe each other as "nerds", have been friends since 10th grade and believe that relationship has made them work harder in school.

"Academically, I was kind of alone in high school until I looked over in health class and saw a girl with a calculus book on her desk," Tikoo said. "I like to think that I would have ended up at the same level in the end, but Bonan has definitely motivated me."

Wang is bound for the University of Florida in Gainesville next fall, where she is considering majoring in psychology or international studies.

"We're glad now that high school is almost over, but I don't know how glad we'll be when nostalgia sets in," Wang said. "Don't complain about high school too much. Four years of your life is a lot to throw out the window."

Eighteen-year-old Bartels is the daughter of Randy and Sabrina Bartles of Millersville. She's been involved in basketball and soccer throughout high school, and has been accepted into medical school at the University of Missouri at Columbia for next fall, an accomplishment achieved by only about a quarter of freshman who apply for that school.

She hopes to become a pediatrician and set up practice in Jackson after college graduation.

"I don't want to say I'm a perfectionist, but I want to do my best in everything," Bartels said. "I really enjoy helping people, and I know I have the ability to do this."

cclark@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128